Titanic
by KnifeInTheCrayonBox
Summary: When I first heard that my family was taking a trip on the Titanic, I was thrilled. I had heard great things about the Titanic. I was sure I would never forget this trip, and I was right, but not for the reasons I thought.


The biggest adventure of my life occurred when I was 16 years old. My family and I were taking a trip to New York, America aboard the Titanic. This included myself, mother, father, my sister Elizabeth, who was 15 at the time, my brother George who was 20, and engaged, so he was bringing his fiancé, Emma, along.

When I first heard that we were taking a trip on the Titanic, I was thrilled. I had heard great things about the Titanic. I had heard that it was unsinkable and that it was the largest passenger steamship in the world. I was even more excited to learn that we were staying in first class. I was sure I would never forget this trip, and I was right, but not for the reasons I thought.

The day of April 14th, 1912 started off as any other ordinary day. I woke up, in the room I shared with my sister, and Emma. We met the family outside in the hall, like we had for the past 4 days aboard the Titanic. We had breakfast at the Café Parisien. It was one of the finest Café's I had ever been to, and I had been to a lot.

The day progressed as usual. Elizabeth, Emma, mother and I explored the boat, marveling at all the modern luxuries like, on-board swimming pool, a gymnasium, a squash court, a Turkish bath, and an elevator in both first class and second class, but the thing I liked the most was the Grand Staircase in first class. It was beautiful.

At 11:40, while Elizabeth, Emma, and I were changing into our nightgowns, ready to rest after staying up late and walking around all day, when the ship suddenly shook. I was thrown into Elizabeth and we both fell to the ground. Emma, who had been on sitting on her bed suddenly fell onto the floor. We all got up and looked around confused.

"What do you suppose that was?" Emma asked.

"I don't know, but maybe Father will know, I'll go ask him," I replied. I quietly slipped out of our room and knocked on the room next to ours that belonged to Mother and Father. Father answered with looking sleepy look on his face, but his eyes looked awake and alert. The jolt probably woke him up too. I suddenly noticed that Father had a sweater on over his pajama's.

"Father, do you know what caused that sudden jolt?" I asked. He shook his head.

"No, but I was just about to go up to the deck and find out if anything is wrong." he said as he slipped out the door and shut it behind him.

"You stay here with your mother while I go check, you know how your mother hates to be alone. It's probably nothing, but I still want to find out what made the ship stop all of the sudden,"

Even though I wanted to discover the cause of the sudden lurch too, I obeyed Father and stepped inside the room to see mother sitting on the expensive red sofa. I went over to her and sat next to her.

"Father went to discover the cause of the sudden stop," I informed mother. She nodded.

"Yes, I know. I wonder why we had to stop all of the sudden. I was fast asleep on my bed, and the next thing I know, I'm thrown on the floor," she said. I suddenly remembered Emma and Elizabeth in the next room, waiting for me to come back and tell them what I found out.

"Mother, I'll be right back, Emma and Elizabeth are waiting for me to come back to the room," I said as I got up.

"Alright. Why don't you bring them over here, so we can have some company while we wait for your father to return.?" I nodded in understanding and left the room.

I returned to our room, and walked over to Emma and Elizabeth, who were sitting on the red sofa in our room. They looked up at me expectantly.

"I don't know what's happened, but Father went up to the deck to find out and he should be back shortly, but in the meantime, Mother would like us to keep her company in her room," I explained. They stood up and followed me out the door to mother and father's room. We sat there with mother for a few minutes, talking about what it would be like in America, when the door opened and George walked in.

"I don't suppose any of you know what's happening?" he asked. We all shook our heads and explained to him that father was going to find out. George closed the door behind him, walked over to us and sat down next to Emma. We all sat there for a few more minutes before father walked in. We all looked at him, waiting to find out what he had discovered. Father smiled.

"Just as I assumed, it was nothing. They were just checking the engines, that's why we stopped all of the sudden. They also said everyone is to report to the deck for a drill, wearing their life jackets and warm clothes," father informed us.

Elizabeth, Emma and I went back to our room, and pulled on our heavy coats. We didn't need to be told to wear warm clothes up to the deck. We all knew how cold it was at night. We got our life jackets from our closet and pulled them on. It seemed a little odd to do a drill at this time of night, but I guess they wanted to keep us on our toes so, in case of an emergency, we would be ready. We met father, mother, and George in the hallway outside our room, and we all walked up to the deck together.

The more time that passed, the more crowded the deck became. After standing there for about 20 minutes, and some complaining from the passengers on deck, they told us that we would be boarding life boats as part of the drill. Mother was one of the first women on the boat, and father attempted to follow close behind, but was stopped by the man helping the woman in the lifeboat.

"Woman and children only," he said. Father stepped back.

"Come girls," mother called to us from the lifeboat. I shook my head. I was reluctant to leave the safety of the ship to board the small life boat. Also, I saw no need to board the boat, it was just a drill after all, so why should I leave the boat? Emma and Elizabeth agreed with me and stood with me. Mother frowned but said no more. A few other woman boarded the boat and it was launched half full.

Emma, Elizabeth, George, father and I just stood there, watching people board the boats. Something didn't seem right about this. Why would they launch life boats if this was just a drill? Wouldn't they normally just see how long it took us to get to the deck, then tell us it was over, and let us go back to bed? Why would they go through all the trouble of launching lifeboats, just for a drill, unless…no, no way, I was being silly. The Titanic was unsinkable. I looked over a Elizabeth. She had turned a little pale and looked nervous. She saw me looking over at her and turned to face me.

"Do you think that maybe the ship might be sinking, and that's why they're launching the lifeboats?" she asked with a hint of panic in her voice. I forced a laugh. I was her older sister, I had to be strong for her sake.

"Don't be silly, the Titanic is unsinkable," I said. I stepped forward to comfort her, but as I walked I felt weird. Maybe it was just my overactive imagination, but it seemed like the ship was tilting to one side. I put a hand on Elizabeth's shoulder to comfort her.

The longer we stood there the more nervous we got. More and more lifeboats were being launched, and they were starting to get full. And I don't think I was the only one who noticed this, but the ship was tilting at a slight angle. I knew deep down what was happening, but I just couldn't believe it. The Titanic was supposed to be unsinkable, it couldn't be sinking! We all stood there silent for a long time before finally, George spoke.

"You need to get in a lifeboat, Emma," he said firmly, and I knew he wasn't just talking to he. He was talking to me and Elizabeth too. He seemed to have accepted the truth about what was happening. Emma's eyes widened and she shook her head.

"Not without you," she protested.

"You have to go without me, and don't worry Kayla and Elizabeth will be there with you," he said comfortingly. Emma's eyes filled with tears.

"No! I won't leave you!" she cried. George picked her up and handed her over to the man who was helping the woman and children into the boat. Emma fought but the man placed her in the life boat. She tried to jump back on the ship but some women who were already in the boat held her back. I stepped up to George and gave him a hug, then I went to Father next. I knew this was the last time I would ever see them.

After Elizabeth finished hugging Father and George we climbed in the lifeboats ourselves. When we were filled with as much people as we could handle we were lowered down into the water. The two men who were allowed on board to row grabbed the paddles and started to row away from the ship. When we were far away enough the men stopped paddling. We watched with sadness and horror as the ship slowly lifted up and up. A few bright sparks of light were sent up.

At 2:05 a.m. the whole bow was under water, and the ship was sinking fast. I felt sick to the stomach just thinking about father and George still on the ship.

At 2:30 a.m. the stern of the boat was up in the air. I stared opened mouthed at the scene. Suddenly with a sickening crack the whole ship split in two. The bow went completely under and sank out of sight, into the ocean.

The stern straightened itself out for a moment before it rose straight up like before and sank into the dark depths of the ocean. We all just sat there in silence for a few moments, the only sound that could be heard was a few women crying for their husbands who had been on board.

After a few minutes a woman named Margaret Brown stood up. I had talked to her for a few minutes after I was on the life boat. I had learned that she had a husband named, James Brown, whom she had to leave behind when she got in the lifeboat.

"What are you all waiting for?" she asked the men who were rowing. "We have to go back, there might be survivors."

"Are you crazy? If we go back we'll get swamped by people trying to get into the lifeboat!" one of the men said.

"Women, how can you stand here and do nothing? Those are our men back there! If we don't help them they'll die!" she said. One of the men rose.

"Sit back down. We're not going back!" he said. Suddenly Emma stood up too.

"She's right, we can't just sit here and watch, we have to go back there and help rescue the survivors," Emma said. She was right. If there was a chance that George or Father was alive, I want to go back and help them. I stood up too and Elizabeth stood with me. The woman in the boat all agreed and we took control of the boat. We rowing back to the site of the sinking, against the demands of the two crewmen.

We searched for survivors for two hours, but found no one. By that time I was so cold I couldn't feel my toes or my fingers, and the rest of my body was slowly going numb.

At 4:10 a.m. a ship finally came into view. It finally made it's way over to us and we were lifted from the tiny lifeboat and onto the ship. When we got on board we were given a few blankets to keep us warm.

By 8:30 a.m. they had rescued all the survivors and the crewmen started to hand out warm tea, and by 8:50 a.m. we were bound for New York. Emma, Elizabeth were sipping on our coffee, when a man suddenly walked up to us.

"Name please," he said.

"Kayla Thomas," I answered.

"Elizabeth Thomas,"

"Emma Johnson." The man walked away and continued on to the next survivors.

"Emma!" We heard a name call from behind us. We all turned around to see George running towards us. Emma let out a shout of delight as she set her cup down and ran over to George. She threw her arms around him and hugged him. Elizabeth and I set our cups down too and ran over to George. We both hugged him.

"Is father still alive?" Was the first thing I said to George. His big smile instantly turned into a frown.

"No," He said sadly. "We both grabbed hold of a door frame and stayed afloat on that, waiting for help, but father died of hypothermia before the lifeboats made it to us, but I was rescued," George said sadly. I felt extremely happy, but depressed at the same time. I was glad that George was alive and well, but I was depressed by the death of father. George turned his attention back to Emma.

I glanced at Elizabeth and I knew that we were thinking the same thing. We should give George and Emma some privacy while they talked. They had been through a lot in the past 3 hours, more horror and grief than anyone should ever have to go through in their whole life.

"We're just going to take a stroll around the deck," I said. George nodded in acknowledgement.

Elizabeth and I walked around the deck. Some passengers from the ship and asked us about what happened on the Titanic. One man even asked us if we knew anything about his three nieces, who were aboard the Titanic.

We had only been walking for about 30 minutes when I saw a sight that made my heart skip a beat. I saw the most handsome man I had ever seen. He had long black hair that fell in his face and almost covered his eyes, which were a beautiful blend of blue and green. He looked about 16 or 17 years old.

He was sitting on a bench. He had a couple towels wrapped around him with a cup of warm tea in his hands. He had obviously been a survivor of the Titanic. He was staring at the ground. He looked deep in thought. I stood there staring at him.

"Kayla, are you alright?" I heard Elizabeth say, bringing me back to reality.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," I said. She looked at the man I had been staring at.

"You like that guy over there don't you?" she asked with a small smile. I nodded.

"Go talk to him," she encouraged me. I shook my head.

"No, I don't want to bother him, he looks like he's thinking about something," I said.

"Go talk to him. I'll go look for mother. I knows she's here somewhere," she said with a wave as she walked away. I turned my attention back to the man. I walked over to him and sat down next to him. He just sat there for a few moments, not seeming to notice my presence. He must be really deep in thought. I cleared my throat a little, hoping he would notice me.

He jumped a little when I cleared my throat, suddenly noticing me sitting next to him. He smiled a little when he saw me.

"Hello," he said. I smiled back.

"Hello," I said. What was I supposed to say now? "My name is Kayla Thomas."

"My name is Justin Evans, nice to meet you," he said.

"You too," I said. "So, I'm guessing you're a survivor too?" It was the first thing that popped into my head. He looked down at his shoes. I could see sadness in his eyes. He must have lost somebody on the Titanic.

"Yes. I went down with the ship, and when I came back up, I grabbed onto a lifeboat that hadn't been launched and had been overturned. I climbed on top and stayed there until a lifeboat came back looking for survivors. I got picked up and then the Carpathia came and rescued us from the lifeboats," he explained.

For the next hour we just talked. I learned that he lost his whole family in the disaster. I told him my story and about what happened to my family.

During the next 3 days aboard the Carpathia I visited Justin everyday, Elizabeth and I found mother, and we finally made it to New York.

Mother, who now had a fear of water, and ships decided it would be best if we all moved to America. George went back to England, packed up all our belongings and brought it back to us in America. Justin, who had been planning on moving to America with his family was suddenly left without any money, clothes, and nowhere to go, so Mother offered to let Justin move in with us. He gladly accepted. Justin and I dated for 6 months before we got engaged and married.

I lived a peaceful life after the Titanic disaster in 1912. Justin and I eventually got a house of our own, had one girl named Lilly, and I even joined the woman's suffrage movement in New York in 1917.


End file.
